Agnieszka Smoczyńska – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

FUGUE – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

March 20, 2023March 20, 2023 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Agnieszka Smoczyńska, fugue, Gabriela Muskala, polish films

The film begins as a dishevelled Alicja wanders dazed along train tracks, approaching a busy station where she promptly hitches up her skirt, squats, and pisses on the train platform for all to see. Two years later we find she has been institutionalised, suffering from the dissociative “fugue” of the film’s title, where a protective doctor decides to put her on television to see if they can discover her identity. It works, and overnight Alicja discovers that she is a woman called Kinga with a husband, young child and extended family. Returning to her original home as she waits for an identity card, Alicja’s past slowly returns to her as she discovers what led to her curious predicament.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK September 16, 2022: THE SILENT TWINS

September 10, 2022September 11, 2022 Jennifer Merin Agnieszka Smoczyńska, betsy bozdech, elizabeth whittemore, Eva-Arianna Baxter, Jennifer Gibbons, jennifer merin, June Gibbons, Leah Mondesir-Simmonds, leslie combemale, letitia wright, loren king, Marilyn Ferdinand., motw, Movie of the Week, sandie angulo chen, susan wloszczyna, Tamara Lawrance, The Silent Twins, truth-based

As the saying goes, truth is often stranger than fiction — though in the case of Jennifer and June Gibbons, both their truth and their fiction were pretty out there. In The Silent Twins, director Agnieszka Smoczynska tells the fascinating story of the real-life identical twin sisters who grew up in Wales in the 1960s and ’70s, speaking only to each other and spinning elaborate fantasies both via felt dolls and through their prolific writing.

Reviews

THE SILENT TWINS – Review by Liz Whittemore

September 9, 2022September 10, 2022 Liz Whittemore Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Jennifer Gibbons, June Gibbons, letitia wright, motw, Movie of the Week, Tamara Lawrance, The Silent Twins, truth-based

The real-life story of twin sisters June and Jennifer Gibbons continuously confounds psychologists and curious onlookers alike. As young girls from Barbados whose father transferred to Wales for for work, they were the only Black family in their neighborhood. The girls experienced insurmountable isolation and bullying. As a result, they turned inward, refusing to speak to anyone other than each other. The Gibbons sisters’ enigmatic relationship wreaked havoc on their family, community, and each other. The Silent Twins creatively illustrates their experiences. Theirs is a story that baffles the world.

Reviews

THE SILENT TWINS – Review by Susan Wloszczyna

September 8, 2022September 10, 2022 Susan Wloszczyna Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Jennifer Gibbons, June Gibbons, letitia wright, motw, Movie of the Week, Tamara Lawrance, The Silent Twins, truth-based

Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska serves up an edgy, unnerving and provocative drama with her latest movie The Silent Twins. Not since The Shining have female twins gotten so under my skin. This fictionalized true-life story focuses on June and Jennifer Gibbons, two Black sisters who grew up in Wales and stuck together. Both had a creative streak but they also had major mental illness issues, including incidents of self-harm and psychological woes.

Interviews SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT February 2016: Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Filmmaker The Lure

January 31, 2016February 24, 2020 Pam Grady 0 Comments Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Polish cinema, sundance, the lure, world cinema

One of the happy surprises of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival was Polish Filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s debut feature, The Lure, which premiered in the International Dramatic Competition. The film — a musical-fantasy-horror-romance hybrid — is an entirely engaging original. Read on…